Large Scale Food Shortages In The US Starting With Produce Now

Food in China: Weather, Wheat and Worry
Posted by KRISTA MAHR Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 3:18 am
Submit a Comment • Related Topics: china, food, weather , drought, fao, food prices, wheat
China is a nation of superlatives, and its role in weather manipulation is no exception. Beijing runs the world's largest program in cloud seeding – the process of imbuing clouds with silver iodide to generate precipitation, usually in times of drought. China rolled out its cloud seeding technology to clear the skies of dust and pollution before the Beijing Olympics; last week, the rocket launchers and aircraft were mobilized again – this time to battle a drought in the nation's wheat belt.

Evidently, the world's biggest cloud seeding program just got bigger. Yesterday, China's meteorological agency announced that it had received over $1 million from the Ministry of Finance to improve its anti-drought work in rainmaking. Though Beijing's enthusiasm for the technology has been known to go astray, last week's efforts are credited with bringing at least some new snow and moisture to parts of the dessicated region.

For many around the world nervously watching China's wheat crop, that's good news. As the world's largest wheat producer, China is self-sufficient in wheat, but if this year's harvests don't deliver, there is a possibility that Beijing could burn through its significant reserves and have to start importing wheat, driving global prices up even further. (Yesterday, pushed up by floods in Australia and an earlier drought in Russia, wheat prices reached their highest mark since the 2008 record prices.)

How seriously the possibility of large-scale imports in China should be taken has been the subject of much debate in the last few days. Last week, the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report (the first of its kind on China in 15 years) that the drought in the north, which has been going strong since fall, has affected about up to 60% of the nation's wheat crop. The report reads:

According to official estimates some 5.16 million hectares out of the total of about 14 million hectares under winter wheat may have been affected in these provinces. The drought has reportedly affected some 2.57 million people and 2.79 million livestock due to the shortages of drinking water.

It goes on to say that domestic wheat prices are up 16% over last year, and if the dry weather persists through the spring to affect the next harvest late this year, it could seriously impact global wheat prices.

Chinese officials predictably downplayed the report, estimating that the drought-affected area is closer to 40% — not 60 — and rightly underscoring the fact that the FAO report still predicts that China's wheat output would remain steady at 112 million tons. The FT's Javier Blas also called the UN body alarmist for jumping the gun at a sensitive time: “As the FAO tries to pick up the ball – under huge pressure from the French presidency of the G20 to improve its crop forecasting – it risks creating problems. With global agricultural markets on edge, the world is looking at the FAO for guidance. It needs timely and accurate information, but also nuance and perspective.”

Though trying to stamp out any sense of panic, Beijing itself has not exactly been blasé about the current state of affairs. China's winter wheat crop, harvested in June, yields over 90% of the nation's supply. Over the weekend, China's own drought control agency posted that continuing conditions were “grim” and called for emergency irrigation measures in the wheat belt, according to the New York Times. In addition to its hefty new cloud seeding investment, the government also handed out subsidies this fall to help farmers improve irrigation ditches and reservoirs in the wheat belt. A report from state-run daily Xinhua notes today that if all else fails and no rain comes through this winter or spring, "thousands" of wells could supply water.

Which sounds like a lot, but in the land of superlatives, it ain't. Nor will it be very comforting for the wheat farmers — or the global markets — if the weather doesn't break before the next planting this summer. So let's hope for rain.



Read more: http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/02/15/food-in-china-weather-wheat-and-worry/#ixzz1E37CT0bq

Venezuela has U.S. on edge.

"VENEZUELA
Missile buildup in Venezuela has U.S. on edge...

Venezuela's recent weapons-buying binge has stoked U.S. fears that portable missile launchers could end up in the hands of Colombia's FARC rebels.

Venezuela's recent purchase of the most lethal shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles in the Russian arsenal is sharpening U.S. concerns that parts of President Hugo Chávez's massive weapons buildup could wind up in the hands of terrorists or guerrillas in neighboring Colombia.

Washington's unease is well-founded, U.S. government officials say, because of credible evidence that three top Venezuelan officials offered Colombia's FARC rebels weapons, money and contacts to buy anti-aircraft missiles in 2007.

Such missiles in the hands of the FARC would mark a steep escalation of the 45-year-old conflict in Colombia, where government forces in recent years have deployed a fleet of slow-moving ground-attack warplanes and U.S.-built helicopters to deal devastating blows to rebel jungle camps.

''We are concerned about Venezuelan arms purchases that exceed its needs and are therefore potentially destabilizing,'' State Department spokeswoman Sara Mangiaracina said. ``The Man-Portable Air Defense Systems Venezuela have purchased from Russia are sophisticated weapons systems. It is important that these weapons systems be appropriately controlled to avoid the possibility of diversion.''

Financed by high oil prices, Chávez has been on a weapons-buying binge since 2006, purchasing more than $4 billion worth of Russian Sukhoi jets, Mi helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles for what he says is the professionalization of his 62,000-member armed forces and the defense of his ''socialist revolution'' from U.S. aggression.

U.S. officials have long voiced concerns about the weapons buildup. ''I can't imagine what's going to happen to those 100,000 [Kalashnikovs] and I can't imagine that if it did happen, that it would be good for the hemisphere,'' then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in 2005.

But the purchase of the SA-24 man-portable missiles -- the most sophisticated version manufactured in Russia -- spiked U.S. anxiety.

The missile and launcher weigh just 42 pounds, can hit targets flying at up to 19,500 feet, employ a ''fire and forget'' system that is highly resistant to countermeasures, has night-vision capability and is easy to maintain, U.S. military experts said. Previously, Venezuela only had pedestal-mounted Swedish RBS-70 and French Mistral surface-to-air missiles.

Chávez's press office did not respond to faxed requests for comments.

Until last month, Venezuela's purchase of the SA-24s had been mentioned in public only once and briefly, in a November Russian defense industry report noting ''plans'' for a sale. One former Bush administration official, who requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive issue, said he recalled reports of missiles in Venezuela, but no confirmation.

But on April 19, during the Venezuelan armed forces' annual parade in Caracas, Chávez made a point of halting the march from the reviewing stand to address a unit of about 50 soldiers carrying missiles on their shoulders.

''We have decided to make this brief halt in the parade to highlight the importance that this new unit has for the sovereignty and defense of the country,'' he declared, identifying the weapons as SA-24s and boasting about their speed and weight. "We are a peaceful country. The revolution is peaceful . . . We do not want war but we are required to be capable of defending ourselves."

Addressing Chávez, the captain who commanded the unit described it as "part of the process of strengthening and transforming our revolutionary, anti-imperialist and socialist" armed forces.

To Read Full Story Click HERE

Patriotism and Protectionism

With the conflicts being considerable during these days of various stimulus or rescue plans and the economic issues severely affecting the United States of America and virtually every other global economy, it is important to understand the terms being tossed about in media discussion, often times being undefined and misused.

What is protectionism?

"Protectionism is the economic policy of restraining trade between nations, through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other restrictive government regulations designed to discourage imports, and prevent foreign take-over of local markets and companies. This policy is closely aligned with anti-globalization, and contrasts with free trade, where government barriers to trade are kept to a minimum." -- Wikipedia

What is patriotism?

"Patriotism is commonly defined as love of and/or devotion to one's country...Among the ancient Greeks, patriotism consisted of notions concerning language, religious traditions, ethics, law and devotion to the common good, rather than pure identification with a nation-state...Scholar J. Peter Euben writes that for the Greek philosopher Socrates, "patriotism does not require one to agree with everything that his country does and would actually promote analytical questioning in a quest to make the country the best it possibly can be."...individual responsibility to fellow citizens is an inherent component of patriotism...Patriotism implies a value preference for a specific civic or political community." -- Wikipedia

Essentially this means that to want to have products and services created by our own country, this amazing United States of America, and to desire to have those jobs available to our citizens is essentially patriotic. We are not necessarily saying that we do not want to have success in other countries or that we do not want to continue to trade with other countries. However, we are saying that we want our own country to thrive and our own citizens to live well, with availability in our economy for their means to be met with honest work on products and services we can be truly proud of.

The desire to promote products and services that are made in the U.S.A. is a patriotic duty, a desire for America to succeed and flourish.

The United States of America Can Accomplish Anything.

"Nothing is impracticable to this nation, which it shall set itself to do...We are on the brink of more wonders." -- Ralph Waldo Emerson